Roberto Farinacci

Roberto Farinacci (16 October 1892-28 April 1945) was a member of the Grand Council of Fascism from 1 January 1935 to 2 August 1943 under Benito Mussolini. He was a major leader of the National Fascist Party, and he was killed by the Italian Resistance in 1945.

B iography
Roberto Farinacci was born in Isernia, Molise, Italy in 1892. He gained a degree in law and then became politically active as a moderate and pragmatic socialist, supporting Italy's 1915 entry into World War I before co-founding the fascist movement in 1919 and organizing the National Fascist Party in and around Cremona, which became his subsequent power base. Since Benito Mussolini detested him personally and feared that his extremist ideas would offend the old Italian order which he tried to accomodate, Farinacci only gained a brief spell in office as the party's general secretary from 1925 to 1926. After 1936, he supported an alliance with Nazi Germany and later advocated anti-Semitic policies in Italy. He voted against Mussolini's dismissal by the Grand Council of Fascism in 1943, and he loyally served him in the Salo Republic. In 1945, he was captured and executed by Italian Resistance partisans at Vimercate.